Pharmacy in 2030

Abstract

The Dutch healthcare system has reached a point of no return. Or we drastically change our behaviour and the way healthcare is delivered. Or we keep on going as we do, and the costs will be unbearable, pressure on the workers increases and access to care will become something for the happy few. To contribute to changing the Dutch healthcare system, this project proposes a possible strategy to reshape the operations of Service Apotheek towards 2032. Service Apotheek is one of the bigger pharmacies operating in the Netherlands and they have almost 500 branches in the country. The strategy describes a desired change and has been constructed using the path of the double diamond. In the first part, the foundation of the project is described. In the second part, the current practice is deconstructed into three focus areas that are affecting the future operations of the pharmacy. The third part introduces the insights of the empirical research and ends with a list of aspects that will become characteristic for the operations of the pharmacy. The next part presents a vision that uses these characteristics to describe the future operations of Service Apotheek and how these can be translated into strategic requirements for a new intervention. By turning receiving care from the pharmacist from a one-time event into a more continuous flow, health behaviour arguable can be influenced. The intervention presented in part five is a new proposed service delivered by Service Apotheek that aims to make preventive health the new standard in 2032. The pharmacy no longer only dispenses medicine, but the pharmacy offers programs that can help people to live a healthier life. In doing so, Service Apotheek transforms from a static medicine dispenser to a dynamic care provider that takes care of its patients. The value for the user is added when Service Apotheek can create advice or propose interventions that are specific for that patient on that specific moment in time. To show how this intervention can be implemented, a roadmap is constructed that shapes the transformation of Service Apotheek over the coming years. During the different steps, the service of Service Apotheek gradually expands to become able to deliver preventive care in 2032. In the end, recommendations for future research are introduced that could really make this intervention fly. If Service Apotheek succeeds to implement this transition in the coming years, they can contribute to creating a Dutch healthcare system that is viable again.